Sixteen writers – half French-speaking and half Japanese – boarded a luxury train in Kyoto, Japan on Oct 22, faced with the unusual task of collectively writing a novel in under 24 hours.
The authors, who include Muriel Barbery, are taking part in a project by "L'ecriture en Mouvement" – Writing in Motion – a French association that promotes literary exchanges.
By the time the Twilight Express Mizukaze – the striking, bottle-green train in the Art Deco style – pulls into the western city of Matsue on the morning of Oct 23, they were supposed to have completed a 200-page story.
"It's a completely crazy project: coming together on an iconic train, where 16 voices must form a coherent and meaningful whole," said Barbery, famous in the English-speaking world primarily for her 2006 novel The Elegance Of The Hedgehog.
"We were each given the biography of a character – someone whom all the other characters knew, and who is the reason why they all ended up on the same train," she added.
It is the second time Writing in Motion has orchestrated such a project. The first, held in Canada in 2015, also united local writers with French counterparts.
The central theme and overall narrative were discussed before departure, but the plot – set aboard the Mizukaze itself – will take shape as the journey unfolds.
The landscape outside, dotted with paddy fields and Japan's distinctive architecture, "will inevitably find its way" into the writing, said French writer Christophe Ono-dit-Biot.
So, too, will the train's spacious cabins, dark wood panelling, plush carpets and wall sconces that recall the opulence of the Orient Express.
"It's not like we're making a collection of separate short stories. We're creating a novel, and I'm working to build bridges between the different pieces," said Anne Forrest-Wilson, the founder of Writing in Motion.
Interpreters are on board to help ensure smooth communication.
In the train bar, Toh EnJoe, a master of Japanese science-fiction, sipped a glass of wine as he wrote.
"It would be nice if it all comes together. There's a high chance it won't," he said.
"Everyone is drawing their parts separately, so the key point is how everyone is going to coordinate with each other – or not."
His own character, he notes, "is unusual... my protagonist is someone who missed the train".
Several of the Japanese authors have won some of their country's most prestigious literary awards, including EnJoe, who took the Akutagawa Prize in 2012.
Others include Hitomi Kanehara, a novelist known for her radical style, and the poet Machi Tawara.
The exercise follows the tradition of "Oulipo", a movement founded in the 1960s mainly by French-speaking writers seeking new literary forms by imposing constraints on their techniques.
The group's best-known members have included Georges Perec and the Italian novelist Italo Calvino.
"Practicing gymnastics individually is not the same as doing it collectively. What we're doing is a little like synchronised swimming," Oulipo president Herve Le Tellier said. – AFP
